Vedic Knowledge Online

The Manu Smriti says that the ambitious satriyas of Bharatvarsha went abroad to the neighboring countries to establish their new kingdoms and, as they were cut off from the mainstream of the Bhartiya civilization and culture, they developed their own language and civilization as time went on. Natural calamities (such as ice ages) totally shattered their civilizations but still the survivors, in the spoken form of their primitive languages, held many apbhransh words of the original Sanskrit language which their remote ancestors had retained in their memory. As a result of this affiliation with Bhartiya culture and the Sanskrit language, Sanskrit became the origin of the growth of the literary development in other languages of the world.

When a language is spoken by unqualified people the pronunciation of the word changes to some extent; and when these words travel by word of mouth to another region of the land, with the gap of some generations, it permanently changes its form and shape to some extent. Just like the Sanskrit word matri, with a long 'a' and soft 't,' became "mater" in Greek and "mother" in English. The last two words are called the 'apbhransh' of the original Sanskrit word 'matri.' Such apbhranshas of Sanskrit words are found in all the languages of the world and this situation itself proves that Sanskrit was the mother language of the world.

India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of European languages. She was the mother of our philosophy … of our mathematics … of the ideals embodied in Christianity … of self government and democracy…mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.

— William Durant. Author of the ten volume, story of civilisation.

Here is a list of prominent terms, names of places, cities and sites that has Sanskrit and Vedic origin.

A

Abraham

Sanskrit: Brahma, "Vedic God".

Adam

Sanskrit: aadim, "The first or most ancient man".

Andropov

Sanskrit: Indra, "Vedic God".

America

Sanskrit: Amaraka, "Land of the immortals".

Amsterdam

Sanskrit: Antardham, "Region below sea level".

Agone (fire)

Sanskrit: Agni, "Vedic fire God".

Arabia

Sanskrit: Arvastan — Arva means 'Horse' in Sanskrit.

Aristotle

Sanskrit: Arishta-taal, "God, the warder of calamities".

Australia

Sanskrit: Astral-alaya, "Land of the missiles".

B

Bolshevik

Sanskrit: Bal-sevik, "Rishis seeking spiritual power".

Britain

Sanskrit: Brihat-sthan, "Great land or islands".

Budapest

Sanskrit: Buddaprastha, "City dedicated to Lord Buddah".

Burma

Sanskrit: Brahmadesh, "the Land of Brahma".

C

Canterbury

Sanskrit: Shankapury, "Township of Lord Siva".

Caspean sea

Sanskrit: Kashyapa muni, "Named after the Vedic sage".

Casseopeans

Sanskrit: Kashyapa muni, "Followers of the Vedic sage".

D

Danube river

Sanskrit: Danuv — the Daityas were also known as the Danuv community due to Kashyapa munis marriage to Danu, who is also known as one of the primary Goddesses of the celts.

Deutschland

Sanskrit: Daityasthan, "Land of the Daityas". Daitya refers to mother Diti and Kashyapa muni, the Dutch also share this link.

Devonshire

Sanskrit: Devaneshwar, "Land of the Gods".

E

Egypt

Sanskrit: Ajapati — Lord Rama, the illustrious scion of Aja. Their kings were named Ramses meaning Rama the God.

J

Sanskrit: Yaduism — The Yadu dynasty which Lord Krsna appeared in. It is common for the y and j to become interchangeable hence, Yaduism, Yeduism and finally Judaism.

K

Kandahar (province of Afghanistan)

SanskritGandhar or Gandhara — Gandhara is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir and eastern Afghanistan. During the Mahabharata period, the present-day Kandahar province of Afghanistan used to be known as Gandhar.